Improved harbor-dredging boat



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UNITED STATES WILLIAM H. NOBLES, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

IMPROVED HARBOR-DREDGING BOAT.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,346., dated June 5, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WTLLIAM H. N oBLEs,

- of St. Paul, Ramsey county, State of Minnesota, have invented an Improved Harbor- Dredging Steamer; and l do declare the following to be an exact description thereof, reference being had .to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, making` a part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a longitudinal section of the steamer and dredging devices 5 Fig. 2, a side elevation or front view of the movable sliding fran'ie withiA iv-revolving plows.

The nature' of my invention consists in the shape and construction of the steamboat with its dredging-plow attached to the bottom, aperture across the center, and tanks fore and aft, also revolving spiral plows or scrapers operating` on amovable sliding upright frame, with endless chains, sand-boxes, and pulleys, combined, for channeling rivers or clearing out or deepening harbors.

A represents the steamer or boat. B is the opening in which the wheels, with their plows or scrapers U, are placed and operate. D is an upright movable sliding frame that holds the shaft E and its plows or scrapers C in place, and it operates in grooves in each side of the boat, so as to be raised and lowered, when required, for the purposes of repairing 0r lengthening the plows C. G represents the cog-l wheel on the plow-shaft E. H represents the bevel-wheels on the drivin g-shaft J, arranged so that when the frame D is lowered to its place they will gear into the cog-Wheel Gr on the plow-shaft E. The driving-shaft J is operated by engines on the inside of the vessel, extending through the bulk-head to the bevelwheels Hin the opening or aperture B. K are the walls that surround the plow C, that are submerged when in operation and inside ofthe opening. The shaft J extends through the bulk-heads similar to the crank-shaft of a propeller. L is the double mold-board plow, placed in the rear of the revolving plows and at the -center and bottom of the boat, for the purpose or spreading the earth from the center of the channel, which the plows O fail to reach, and

throwing thedirt in reach of the plows C.'

These plows are permanently attached to the shaft E by passing through a mortise in the shaft, and supported by flanges N at the sides of the wheels. v

The plows or mold-boards are so constructed and setspirally that as the center plows C leave the furrow the second one from the center takes it up, and so on until all the dirt or sand within' reach of the plows or scrapers is thrown to each side of the vessel.

The plows G can be extended from the shaft of any proper length to deepen the channel as may be required, and there may be one wheel straight across the vessel or two wheels placed on frames D, so as to operate either diagonally, -at an angle, or straight across the boat, the center plows C being shaped as a double moldboard at the point of the angle formed by the diagonal wheels, to throw the dirt or sand to each side of the boat, while the frames D will be made to operate in grooves E the same when the wheels are set diagonally as when straight across the boat.

The vessel containing the machinery is so constructed that by letting water into the tanks P the vessel can be lowered to any desired depth to enable the plows to reach the channel or bed ot' the river or stream, and to raise the vessel by pumping the water out.

The lower part of the vessel at It, from the center to the steril, is deeper than the front part,'S, and from the wheel forward the bottom of the vessel draws less water than from the wheels to the stern, the wheels cutting sufficiently below the latter to allow the stern to pass through the channel made by the plows, the bow resting on or near the bar-in front, raising or lowering the boat and increasing or diminishing the depth of the channel by filling or emptying the tanks P.

As the plows U cut the dirt the dirt or sand is worked across to the outside until it comes in contact with the buckets T, the plows or scrapers C filling the buckets T, when it is raised by the buckets T and discharged through chutes V at cach side of the vessel, the buckets T operating on an endless chain, W, that moves around the pulleys X.

Whenever I deem it necessary to dispense with the endless chains W where occasion may require, I place an additional plow, C, on the extremity ofthe wheel instead of the pulley X, and throw oli.e the dirt or sand to each side of the vessel. The spiral row of plows or the stern, and'adinitting across the center thereof an open space, B,for the introduction of plows or Scrapers, as herein described and set forth.

2. The plows or Scrapers C, placed spirally on its shaft E, operating on an upright movable frame, D, with the endless chains W,vsand buckets T, and pulleys X, arranged and conibined as herein described, and for the purposes set forth.

3. The inode of illingthe bucketslby means of the plows or Scrapers G, as herein described.

W. H. NOBLES.

Witnesses J. FRANKLIN REIGART, J oHN S. HoLLrNGsHEAD. 

